View full sizeEric Olsen of Avondale pulls weeds as volunteers lead by Roald Hazelhoff, Director of the Southern Environmental Center at Birmingham-Southern College clear the property of the late Catherine Sims in Homewood, Ala., Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011. Sims left the property to the City of Homewood in her estate with instructions that it was to be used, in some way, as a botanical garden. The volunteers work to clear the land of over-growth, weeds and wild shrubs.
(The Birmingham News/Jeff Roberts)

On Sunday, neighbors
will hold a market day at the Sims
Garden at 908 Highland Road in Homewood to help raise money for the upkeep
of the garden, which was left to the city by resident Catherine Sims in 2006.
The event will last from 2 to 6 p.m.

The garden
is termed an "Ecoscape" by the Southern Environmental Center at
Birmingham-Southern College, which takes care of the property, said East
Edgewood resident Mary Ellen Snell.

"The garden
has been there at least 50 years," Snell said.

Sunday's
event will include a plant sale, apple-bobbing, a tour of the garden by
caretaker Arnie Rutkis, baked goods from neighbors and tables with vendors,
Snell said.

"We want it
to be a fun, informal kind of atmosphere," she said. "The idea was to have sort
of natural-made items."

When Sims
died, she left money for the upkeep of the garden and the home where the
caretaker lives, and the City of Homewood chipped in an additional $10,000 a
year for three years, Snell said. But those three years are up, she said, and
with the city's contribution expected to fall to about $1,500, neighbors want
to help shore up the garden's finances.

"They agreed
that for three years the city would pony up some money toward that project,"
she said. "Now's the time that they sort of back off, and the garden's supposed
to be self-sustaining."

Neighbors
have also sold sponsorships to the event, with all of the proceeds going to the
Southern Environmental Center. Sponsors and donors include State Rep. Paul
DeMarco, Homewood Sporting Goods and Piggly Wiggly, Snell said.